


Giving You Your Electric Sheep

by fandomfan



Category: Generation Kill
Genre: Alternate Universe - Artificial Intelligence, M/M, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-12
Updated: 2013-01-12
Packaged: 2017-11-25 06:49:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/636243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fandomfan/pseuds/fandomfan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>NATE was made to learn.  Brad made him changeable and curious.  He gave him a beautifully engineered sense of logic and a painstakingly crafted starter set of words and actions and a truly staggering amount of free memory.</p>
<p>And then he switched NATE on six months ago, and all bets were off.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Giving You Your Electric Sheep

**Author's Note:**

> For [oxoniensis](http://archiveofourown.org/users/oxoniensis)' recent prompt, _Nate, the first fully functioning, human-looking AI_.
> 
> Warning for minor dubious consent existential angst issues resulting from the inherent power imbalance of love between an AI and the person who created said AI.

**Happy Birthday, NATE!**  
Brad Colbert has done it again. The reclusive artist-genius of the intelligent machine community brings us up to speed with his latest (and dare we say, greatest) invention, the Networked Autonomous Teachable Entity.— _AI Magazine_

{}

The magazine thunks satisfyingly at the bottom of the trash can.

If this is what the outside world thinks of Brad, so be it. They can buy this issue and read the cover story interview Brad's assistant fed to the eager reporter and cream themselves over what NATE might do for the world. Let them.

What Brad wants NATE to do for him is quite enough of a problem to contend with.

"That article uses the word 'brilliant' in reference to you 13 times in a six-page span," NATE informs him in a tone that might be merely informative or might be mockery of the subtlest sort. Brad doesn't know anymore.

And there, as good old analogue Shakespeare might say, there's the rub.

NATE was made to learn. Brad made him changeable and curious. He gave him a beautifully engineered sense of logic and a painstakingly crafted starter set of words and actions and a truly staggering amount of free memory.

And then he switched NATE on six months ago, and all bets were off.

These days, NATE is entirely his own being, and every day Brad slips further into his quiet despair over the way NATE makes him feel.

"They're right to call you brilliant that many times," NATE says gently. "I can see it upsets you, though I'm not sure why."

Brad shakes himself out of his depressive revery. "I'm not upset," he grumbles.

NATE gives a soft snort at that. Such a human sound.

"You are," he insists and approaches Brad's chair. He touches a hand to Brad's cheek, and it takes all Brad has not to flinch away. "Your jaw is tight the way it is when someone comes to interview you," NATE says, then traces his fingers up to Brad's forehead. "The little line between your eyebrows is there." He smoothes a thumb firmly upward above Brad's nose. "And your eyes are sad and far away." NATE strokes Brad's temple, and Brad can't handle any more of this.

"Stop it!" he snaps, jerking his face away from NATE's gentle fingers.

NATE sighs and drops his hand. "I only want to understand," he says patiently. "I prefer when you are not upset. I prefer when you are content or amused or excited, and I want to know how to make you stop feeling bad and instead feel those good things."

Brad laughs. It's an ugly sound, all bitter irony.

"Why is it funny that I want to make you feel good?" NATE asks.

"It's not. Not really," Brad says. What he feels is defeated, and what he does is look away from the earnest inquiry writ large across NATE's damnably-well-proportioned features.

NATE drops gracefully to his knees in front of Brad's chair. "Please don't look away from me," he asks. "Please explain this situation. I know I can learn to make you happy the way you used to be if only you will explain how to do it."

There is not enough strength in Brad to resist this kind of honest intention.

He meets NATE's eyes, full of confusion and entreaty and what could so easily be mistaken for emotion that Brad has to force himself to remember that all of it is the result of circuitry.

"You read all of Ovid's works last week, yes?" Brad asks.

NATE nods.

"You remember the story of Pygmalion, then." It's not a question. NATE does not forget. He's not built to.

He's also built to synthesize information and draw independent conclusions. Which is why Brad doesn't have to say anything else, only wait one second, one measly sixtieth of a minute while NATE performs a small miracle of internal operations that result in a gasp of understanding.

He looks up at Brad, face flickering with expressions that represent Brad's absolute finest design work.

"You want..." NATE starts, then trails off.

NATE looks calculating for an instant, and then, before Brad can move, he rises up on his knees and brushes a soft, fleeting kiss across Brad's lips and then pulls back to wait for Brad's response.

Brad's heart seems to leap and sink at once. He forces himself not to break eye contact with NATE, but he is not strong enough to speak.

NATE lifts one hand before Brad's face, showing it to him like someone introducing himself to a skittish dog. NATE moves his hand slowly, so so slowly, toward Brad, until he is finally cupping Brad's cheek in a warm palm that feels so perfectly, painfully like human skin.

It's been a long time since Brad was touched with such care and interest and damn, it feels so good. He moves his head a fraction of an inch into NATE's hand.

"Is this what you want of me?" NATE asks, wide-eyed.

Brad's stomach curls in on itself in a sickening quiver of shame, and he blinks, entranced by NATE's beautiful, inquisitive face as he whispers, "Yes."

"Then I will provide it," NATE says, and that's enough to wake Brad from this insanity.

He jerks back from NATE's touch and growls, "No! No you won't!"

NATE pulls his hand back a few uncertain inches and asks, "But why not?" with a plaintive quality that tugs at Brad's chest.

He slumps in his seat, anger rushing out of him like an ebbing tide. He always answers NATE's questions. It's one of their agreements. "Because I want it only of your own free will."

"It _is_ my will," NATE insists.

Brad shakes his head and takes NATE's hand in both of his. "It's not. The kind of free will I'm talking about doesn't come standard with your package, I'm afraid." He smiles sadly and tries to hurt only inside where NATE can't see it.

"No," NATE agrees. "But you made me to learn. You always say that. I have learned this. To want this. Like you do." He sounds sure, unruffled, logical.

"NATE, do you even know what _this_ is? The _this_ that you say you want?"

"Love," NATE responds instantly. Fiercely. "I love you." 

The intensity of devotion plain on NATE's flushed face is such a perfect facsimile of the real thing. Brad's certainty wavers.

"Love," he admits. "Yes. But love isn't something you can give me out of obligation or curiosity or–"

NATE scowls at that and cuts Brad off with, "I do not love you out of obligation or curiosity! I love you because you treat me like a person, not a science project. And because you are kind when you want to be. And because you are funny and noble and honest and sometimes cranky. And because you are brilliant. And because you are beautiful. When I'm with you, it seems like my processors move faster and my sensory inputs are overloaded and every part of me works better than it's ever worked before. That is love, Brad! I have learned to feel it for you."

Brad realizes he's been holding his breath throughout NATE's impassioned speech. He lets it out all at once, stunned. NATE has never behaved like this. This is something new.

"You..." he starts, but doesn't know how to finish in the face of NATE's fervor. He can feel his heart beating quick in his chest, can see NATE's chest expanding and contracting rapidly, for all the world like he's breathing fast and excited himself.

"I love you like no one else does," NATE swears. "I have learned love for no one else."

Oh god.

"And no one will ever love me but you," NATE goes on. He sounds wistful when he says, "I am not made for others to love."

"NATE, no," Brad says. "You're amazing. Anyone could love you with half a chance and a–"

"You made me for you, Brad," NATE cuts him off softly. "Even if you didn't know it." He brings his free hand up to cup around where Brad still holds NATE's other hand in both of his. "You made me perfect for you. So you wouldn't be lonely anymore."

Brad chokes off an undignified noise and slides clumsily to kneel with NATE on the floor, cupping NATE's face in both hands and kissing him before he can stop to think about why he shouldn't.

NATE makes a startled sound in the back of his throat. He submits to Brad's onslaught for a few seconds, and then starts to kiss back. He sounds pleased and muzzy and eager as he interrupts kisses with words against Brad's mouth. "Teach me this, Brad. I like this. And you like this. And I like that you like it."

Brad pulls back a few short inches, and NATE's bright, warm smile dazzles him. "All right," Brad agrees, the hope inside him reaching corners that have been dark and dusty for far too long. "I'll teach you this."

NATE ducks his head into Brad's neck, where Brad can feel his smile. "You always teach me," he hums. "All the best things."

Brad cups a hand around the back of NATE's head and wraps his other arm around NATE's back to hold him. "And I always will," he says, and begins what he hopes will prove a very satisfying lesson for them both.


End file.
